Measuring the Man - by Jonathan White & Lucas Morel (Paperback)

About the Book

In Measuring the Man, acclaimed scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass's most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass's writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. After Lincoln's assassination--as Jim Crow laws and political violence gutted the hard-won rights of Black Americans--Douglass expressed greater appreciation for Lincoln's statesmanship during the Civil War and praised him as a model for postwar America. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln's contributions to the nation but also teach today's generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders.

About the Author

Lucas E. Morel is the John K. Boardman Jr. Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University. He is the author of Lincoln and the American Founding and Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self-Government and editor of Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages. He is a former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, a consultant for exhibits at the Library of Congress and National Archives, and he currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission. Jonathan W. White is professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and vice chair of The Lincoln Forum. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including A Great and Good Man: Rare, First-hand Accounts and Observations of Abraham Lincoln and an exciting children's book, My Day with Abe Lincoln. His recent book, A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House, won the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.